Jonathan Mayberry, Lawrence Campbell, and Lee Loughridge
“Part 2:” Previously in this alt-universe, an outbreak reducing people to the basest of stages, began with Spider-man and spread to a few sections of humanity and the metahuman community. Reed Richards, along with other brilliant members of the superhero community, has tasked Wolverine, due to his healing abilities, to help stop the outbreak before it gets too far. Trying to join up with the Xmen, Wolverine finds that they have all been turned and he had no choice but to kill them all.
Summary: We open up to Wolverine reporting back to Reed, The Thing, Hank Pym, and Beast discussing the Xmen situation. Because of his rock skin, Ben Grimm’s been charged with dealing with the captured, infected Spider-man. The scientists have discovered what the disease is, but to create an antivirus, they will need a healthy survivor of the disease. It was brought over by members of the Russian mob, but they were killed before they could sell it. The style of the mob killings points directly to one person: Frank Castle, the Punisher. As Wolverine heads out to find the Punisher, he goes by several fights between superheroes and villains, with infected on each side. Wolverine stumbles onto The Punisher, Hawkeye, and Taskmaster fighting the infected and joins in the fight. The Lizard kills Taskmaster, and is in turn killed by the Punisher. Hawkeye is bitten shortly before the fight ends, and is taken away by the military. Wolverine and Punisher head back towards the Baxter building as the Punisher talks about the mob hit from 18 months ago. He was under the impression the merchandise the mob was moving that night was a nuke. Thinking the cargo was some sort of bioweapon instead, he blew it up but was exposed to a bit of it. He was sick for a few days, but the overdose from the disease caused him to recover. As they are heading back to the Baxter building, an infected Magneto and Electro are fighting and an overload of their abilities blow out the power grid to the city. Finally making it to the base, they find the building has gone dark, and it is a bloodbath. In the 30 minutes since Wolverine spoke to Reed, everyone in the building has been killed. They find Reed, stretched to his limited and wrapped around a door, barely alive. Inside, they find Spiderman and the Beast eating Hank Pym. The Punisher blows Beast’s head off on sight. Spiderman escapes and then The Thing, now infected, shows up with Red She-Hulk and what appears to be the Invisible Woman, and begins to attack Frank, Wolverine, and Reed.
Highs: Its an interesting story and each of the characters really feels like they should… The writer clearly gets these characters.
Lows: The art is dark and really gritty, and I know that is the feel of the comic, and I think I said this last time, but there are places that I can’t tell who is who because the artist is too focused on some shot of violence.
Verdict: A-. So far so good as we reach the halfway point in this miniseries. Hopefully, this will lead up to the world we saw in Punisher vs. Marvel Universe a year or so ago.
“Part 2:” Previously in this alt-universe, an outbreak reducing people to the basest of stages, began with Spider-man and spread to a few sections of humanity and the metahuman community. Reed Richards, along with other brilliant members of the superhero community, has tasked Wolverine, due to his healing abilities, to help stop the outbreak before it gets too far. Trying to join up with the Xmen, Wolverine finds that they have all been turned and he had no choice but to kill them all.
Summary: We open up to Wolverine reporting back to Reed, The Thing, Hank Pym, and Beast discussing the Xmen situation. Because of his rock skin, Ben Grimm’s been charged with dealing with the captured, infected Spider-man. The scientists have discovered what the disease is, but to create an antivirus, they will need a healthy survivor of the disease. It was brought over by members of the Russian mob, but they were killed before they could sell it. The style of the mob killings points directly to one person: Frank Castle, the Punisher. As Wolverine heads out to find the Punisher, he goes by several fights between superheroes and villains, with infected on each side. Wolverine stumbles onto The Punisher, Hawkeye, and Taskmaster fighting the infected and joins in the fight. The Lizard kills Taskmaster, and is in turn killed by the Punisher. Hawkeye is bitten shortly before the fight ends, and is taken away by the military. Wolverine and Punisher head back towards the Baxter building as the Punisher talks about the mob hit from 18 months ago. He was under the impression the merchandise the mob was moving that night was a nuke. Thinking the cargo was some sort of bioweapon instead, he blew it up but was exposed to a bit of it. He was sick for a few days, but the overdose from the disease caused him to recover. As they are heading back to the Baxter building, an infected Magneto and Electro are fighting and an overload of their abilities blow out the power grid to the city. Finally making it to the base, they find the building has gone dark, and it is a bloodbath. In the 30 minutes since Wolverine spoke to Reed, everyone in the building has been killed. They find Reed, stretched to his limited and wrapped around a door, barely alive. Inside, they find Spiderman and the Beast eating Hank Pym. The Punisher blows Beast’s head off on sight. Spiderman escapes and then The Thing, now infected, shows up with Red She-Hulk and what appears to be the Invisible Woman, and begins to attack Frank, Wolverine, and Reed.Highs: Its an interesting story and each of the characters really feels like they should… The writer clearly gets these characters.
Lows: The art is dark and really gritty, and I know that is the feel of the comic, and I think I said this last time, but there are places that I can’t tell who is who because the artist is too focused on some shot of violence.
Verdict: A-. So far so good as we reach the halfway point in this miniseries. Hopefully, this will lead up to the world we saw in Punisher vs. Marvel Universe a year or so ago.
Summary: We open up on Wolverine sticking his claws through Jean Grey, effectively killing her, and effectively making this something I will enjoy. Collossus shows up and fights Wolverine, and we see the progression of their friendship from the time when they joined the team together to now. While reflecting on a scene where they are enjoying watching hockey, when Spiderman and the Rhino show up at the game. After defeating the villain, Spiderman begins eating him and just tearing through his body. He's quickly nabbed by the Fantastic Four, and Reed Richards becomes our supporting character. I don't know if these two have ever really shared a book together, but I really think that they should. Anyway, there is nothing wrong with Spiderman as best they can tell, he's just gone savage. Reed shrugs it off as an isolated incident and leaves it at that... Can Marvel make a universe where Reed Richards is not an arrogant dick? Cut to a few weeks later as Wolverine and Psylocke are dealing with the Morlocks in the sewers. He sends her a head to climb up tot he surface while he finishes up. However, she screams from the surface and once he gets up there himself, he finds nothing but a a bloody mess of body parts. Reed arrives a moment later, saying that Spiderman is still locked up, so it had to be something new, that didn't leave a trace. He then tells Wolverine to leave it to the authorities and not get involved. Seriously, Reed? I'm calling it right now- 3 more issues to go- that Reed is somehow behind this. Soon after, the Xmen villain, Blob, is taken down after eating 25 people. Hank Pym and Beast, Hank McCoy, are brought in (Hey Marvel, if you're going to bring in two scientists, pick ones with different first names... and if that is impossible, call one of them Hank and th other something else. Major confusion). After telling him that he developed a possible serum and was sending it via Angel, Beast tells Wolverine to be careful... every aggressor is also a victim... to which Wolverine ignores. This immediately gets a chance to be shown as a school bus crashes, filled with infected kids that Wolverine basically beats without much mercy or regret, but manages to lock them in the schoolbus without much killing. Wolverine calls Reed to ask him about the serum, but Angel never arrived with it. Wolverine knows what this probably means, and heads to Central Park where people are being attacked. Infected Dr. Octopus is there and Wolverine dispatches the villain without any trouble, but is grabbed and attacked by the now infected Angel, who just says the word "Meat." Wolverine kills Angel and heads out to Xavier's. This is where our story began is Jean is killed and Collossus gets a claw through his head, with some great dialogue as the scene pans out. "Damn it, Peter. He was my best friend... my last friend, I guess. I already killed all the others." As the scene expands we see the dismembered bodies of other Xmen, including Rogue, Gambit, Storm, Cyclops, Fantomex, Magic, Shadowcat, and for no reason, Iron Fist. I'd like to think this is how his attack began.